the fuperintendance of the refectory, kitchen, cellar, bake. houfe, &c. * "The qualifications of a good cellarer are thus defcribed: "The brethren fhould have a cellarer, not a wine-biber, not proud, not dull, not prodigal; but of difcreet manners, and fearing God; who faithfully diftributes the allowances, and diligently performs his duty, in fuch manner that none of the brethren may have caufe of forrow or complaint, To him alfo the care of the bake-houfe is to be committed, which he is to fuperintend with fuch vigilant attention, that the fervants there employed may not injure the brethren by wafting the provifions, by privately ftealing them, or by living in any negligent manner; he is alfo to take care that these fervants be properly chofen, and fit for their office. In the fame manner alfo he is to fuperintend and take charge of the cooks t." "Fuller fays, "this was a place of more power and profit than the name may feem to import; and that these cellarers were brave blades, much affecting fecular gallantry; for I find it com plained of, that they used to fwagger with their fwords by their fides like lay gentlemen." P. 183. A Lift of the Lord Abbots follows, which is fucceeded. by an account of the diffolution of the Monaftery. The fecond part of the work is to be devoted to the dif cuffion of the architectural antiquities of the abbey, but which, in the prefent portion, defcribes only in part the grand western entrance. The undertaking is highly deferving of encouragement, and will be a very acceptable gratification to all who are curious in antiquarian and topographical research. We might have been excufed perhaps, if we had delayed our at tention to the work till the period of its final accomplishment, but we wished to cheer the authors in their progrefs; being well aware that works of undoubted labour and precarious emolument are entitled to every reafonable encouragement and affiftance. "Fofbrooke, vol. I. p. 156. Blomefield, vol. II. p. 440." Spelman, Gloffary, p. 131." "Fuller, Church Hiftory, b. VI. p. 285." ART, ART. IV. Medical Collections on the Effects of Cold as a Remedy in certain Difeafes. With an Appendix, containing an Account of fome Experiments, made with a View to afcertain the Effects of Cold Water upon the Pulfe. 8vo. 200 pp. Pr. 6s. Longman and Co. 1805. THIS volume, confonant to its title, contains a collection of facts, or of obfervations that have been published under that name, by a variety of writers, to fhew the effects of cold, particularly of cold water, and principally applied outwardly, in the cure of difeafes. It formed the fubject of the author's Inaugural Thefis, printed in the year 1797. Since that time he has increafed the collection by extracting from fuch works as paffed through his hands, whatever he met with illuftrating the fubject. The first part of the vo lume is employed in difcufling the queftion, whether cold, though generally acting as a fedative, is not fometimes ftimulant. The author decides, and we think on good grounds, in the negative. It operates on the living body by tempering heat, and quieting fpafm, and pain; its range is therefore extenfive. It has been ufed advantageoufly, we are told, in opthalmia, catarrh, gout, rheumatifm, and mania, in smallpox, measles, eryfipelas, fcarlet fever, the plague, yellow fever, in hæmorrhages, and in various nervous and fpafmodic cafes. To each clafs of complaints, a chapter is allotted, in which a fhort account of the difeafes is given, and of the medium through which cold is applied to the body, with the authority on which the practice is founded. The fources from which the cafes are principally taken, are the works of Darwin, of Rush of Philadelphia, and of Dr. Currie. In colic, dyfentery, and fome other affections of the bowels, cold water is ordered to be drank in large quantities, or administered as glyfters; in local and topical affections, fponges or cloths dipped in cold water, are applied to the parts; in maniacal cafes, the cloths are wrapped round the head, or the head is covered with ice. In fever, the patients are laid on the floor, on blankets, or in a trough, and the water dafhed over them. The effect of cold applied in all or any of these ways, in curing the most dangerous difeafes, is reprefented as truly wonderful. "Could prejudices be overcome," the author fays, p. 170, " perhaps water might be as generally 'ufed to cool febrile heat, as to extinguith elementary fire," We are not difpofed to controvert the pofition, but admitting the efficacy of the affufion of cold water, to be as great as it is fated to be, it may be worth the enquiry whether the fame advantages 122 advantages may not be procured, by drinking the water, as are fuppofed to be obtained by applying it to the furface of the body. If the authority of a reverend divine, Dr. Hancock, is to be admitted, it is equally fo, at the leaft. In the beginning of the laft century he published his Febrifugum Magnum, containing the refult of the experience he had had, in his own family, and among his friends, of the ufe of cold water, in curing fever, and various other complaints, for the fpace of near thirty years. "I have now done," he fays, (in a fhort preface) "what for I have intended to do, fometime before I above these twenty years died, only delayed it to enlarge my experience. If cold water, in the beginning of fevers, will do, what I, from long experience, verily think it will, the common benefit it will be to mankind, will fufficiently excufe my divulging my experience. If, upon a fair trial, it be found to fail, I muft bear the difgrace of amufing the world with fuch a propofal.” This is candid, and we have no doubt that the author meant to relate nothing but what he had actually experienced; but it is neceffary, as Dr. Heberden fomewhere obferves, to be upon our guard against experience itself, where the mind is occupied with fome pre-conceived opinion upon the fubject. The author's firft experience was in fcarlet fever. It was of the infectious kind, as four of his children took it. Their principal, and indeed fole beverage, was cold water, or water with a toaft in it. They all recovered. Some time after, one of his children being taken with fever, he fent him to bed, and gave him plenty of cold water for his drink, which foon reduced the fever, and on the fourth day variolous eruptions appeared. Though the eruptions were numerous, they were of the diftin&t kind, and by continuing the fame drink, the boy passed easily through the difeafe. Reafoning upon this cafe the author fays, p. 56: "Hence it appears, the life of the game in the fmall-pox, and I believe in all other fevers, that are to be attended with eruptions, is to quell the fever at the very firft; which if it can be done, I dare almoft engage the eruptions fhall be kindly, and without any dangerous fymptom attending them," and in fupport of this maxim, he quotes the authority of Sydenham, who fays, quo fedatior eft fanguis, eo melius erumpent puftulæ. The author afterwards gave it, with advantage, in quinfy, eryfipelas, pleurify, rheu matifm, cholic, afthma. "It is good," he fays, "for the ftone, though not to cure it, yet to give eafe in the paroxyfins." Some fmall time before publifhing his Febrifugum Magnum, he met with a book by Vander Heiden, De fero lactis, Aqua Frigida, et Aceto, which confirming his opinion of the value Vander of water, appears to have given him great pleafure. From Vander Heiden, we will give a few paffages, as quoted by Dr. Hancock, for we have not feen the work. “Cold water preferves from the gout; immerfing of the hands and feet in cold water does not repel the humours, but cools them, foftens the fkin, and draws out the vapours. Dr. Kinglake may profit by this authority. The fciatica, or hip gout, if taken at the beginning, is cured in four or five days, only by drinking cold water; it alfo cures the heart burn, and gives eafe in fits of the ftone." We fee therefore that the fame effects are attributed to water, taken into the ftomach, by those writers, which we are now told result from affufing it over the furface of the body. Dr. Hancock's book became very popular, as appears from its having paffed through fix editions, there can be little doubt therefore, that the remedy was frequently tried. To what then are we to attribute its falling into almoft total difufe? Did this arise from the prejudice of the medical practitioners of the time, against the cooling regimen in fevers, or from the failure of the remedy in producing the promised advantages? Perhaps both caufes might operate. In the work before us, we are taught to expect the promifed benefit, principally from affu. fing cold water over the furface of the body, but as the procefs by which this is propofed to be done, particularly in cafes of fever, is extremely inconvenient and diftrefling both to the patient and the attendants, and, as we fufpect, not altogether free from danger, and as the advantages to be obtained frota it are no greater than what we are affured will be procured by ufing the water as a beverage, there can be little difficulty in giving the latter mode the preference. Thefe obfervations are not intended to affect the merit of Dr. Stock's publication. He may not, perhaps, be forry to fee them, as the Febrifugum Magnum is not now often met with. His object was to collect in one point of view what has been written on the fubject, as far as it fell in his way. This he appears to have done, and to have arranged the obfer vations with ingenuity and judgment. To thofe therefore who wish to know to what extent the affufion of cold water has been carried, we recommend this volume, as containing an abstract of every thing material on the fubject. The author has also attempted, and with ingenuity, to give the rationale of the practice, In an appendix there are fome obfervations on the effects produced on the pulfe, by bathing. The pulle is generally found to be quick, and feeble, atter immerfion in cold water; as a fedative, we might expect a contrary effect, and that it would become flower. Printed Kinglake, by mistake, in our laft, pp. 85,6. ART. ART. V. An Examination of Mr. Dugald Stewart's Pamphlet, relative to the late Election of a Mathematical Profeffor in the University of Edinburgh. By one of the Minifters of Edinburgh. Second Edition, with an Appendix. 152 pp. Hill, Edinburgh; Longman, &c. London. 1806. Δίκαιος ἑαυτοῦ κατήγορος ἐν πρωτολογία Ὡς δ ̓ ἂν ἐπιβάλῃ ὁ ἀντίδικος, ἐλέγχεται. 8vo. THE truth of this fcholaftic aphorifm has feldom been more completely evinced, than by the controverfy occafioned in Edinburgh by the appointment of Mr. Leflie, to the profefforfhip of mathematics in the univerfity of that city. The character of Mr. Dugald Stewart ftands fo high in the republic of letters, that every thing flampt with the authority of his name must command a degree of attention and respect, which it would not have obtained had it come from a writer of lefs celebrity; and whatever fuch a man afferts as a fact, is entitled to unlimited credit, unless it can be contradicted and difproved by fufficient evidence. When his fhort flatement, therefore, was put into our hands, we read it with the fulleft conviction that every thing afferted in it was unqueftionable; and we rofe from the perufal with a fettled perfuafion, that the minifters of Edinburgh had entered into a combination for fecuring to themselves the profefforial chairs in the university; and that it was not a regard for truth, so much as the interefts of their own body, that had induced them to draw, from fome unguarded expreffions employed by Mr. Leflie, inferences which involved a charge of nothing lefs than atheism againft that gentleman. Under thefe impreffions we reviewed Mr. Stewart's pamphlet; and, in the courfe of the review, fpoke of the conduct of the minifters in terms, which, as exhibited by him, it certainly deferved. Soon indeed we received from Scotland, and even from Scottifh univerfities, information which led us to fufpect, that the terms which we had employed were by far too ftrong; and we embraced the firft opportunity that was afforded us, to render to the minifters all the reparation to which they then appeared to us entitled t. The cafe, however, feems now to be totally changed; and if Meflrs. profeffors Playfair and Stewart do not make a fatisfactory reply to the pamphlet before us, we fhall be compelled to be * July, 1805, p. 33, &c. |